Former Four Winds champ wins LPGA major

Published 11:30 pm Monday, June 13, 2016

Brooke Henderson, who won the 2015 Four Winds Invitational, became the second youngest player to ever win an LPGA major championship with her victory in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship Sunday.

It was Henderson’s second win on the LPGA Tour and will vault her from No. 4 to No. 2 in the world in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

She has played in 37 events on the LPGA Tour and made the cut in 34 of them. Her previous victory came in the 2015 Cambia Portland Classic. She has 13 top 10s, including several as a non-member of the tour.

Lydia Ko, who won the 2015 Evian Championship at 18 years, nine months and two days, was a younger major champion.

Henderson was just 17 when she won the Four Winds Invitational at Blackthorn Golf Club in South Bend last June.

The LPGA Symetra Tour invades Blackthorn this weekend for the fifth annual Four Winds Invitational and a purse of $150,000.

The first round begins Friday morning with the final round Sunday.

There is no cost  to golf fans this weekend thanks to sponsor Fit Stop, which purchased all of the tickets.

A field of 144 of the best up and coming golfers from the United States and 26 countries will compete in the invitational, which is also the first leg of the Potawatomi Cup.

The Potawatomi Cup is a four-event swing that awards a total of $40,000 to players based on their finishes in the Four Winds Invitational, Island Resort Championship (June 24-26), the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship (July 29-31) and the PHC Classic (Aug. 19-21).

The two previous winners of the Potawatomi Cup were Min Soe Kwak (2014) and Annie Park (2015). Both are now playing on the LPGA Tour.

Thanks to the Four Winds Invitational and its then history-making $150,000 purse, is credited with increasing the money awarded on the Symetra Tour. There are now nine tournaments that offer a purse of $150,000 or more.

This year’s event at Blackthorn will draw 14 of the top 15 players on the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The field also includes 20 current LPGA Tour members.

The winner will receive $22,500, which could vault them near the top of the money list or into the top 10. The top 10 money winners at the end of the year will earn LPGA Tour membership for 2017.

The field will also include a former South Bend St. Joseph standout in Anna Wilcoxson, who is a member of the Western Michigan University golf team.

Wilcoxson received a sponsor’s exemption to play in the tournament.

There will also be eight players who qualified for the U.S. Open in the field this weekend. The U.S. Open will take place in three weeks at Corde Valle in San Martin, California.

Two NCAA champions are also in the field of 144. Doris Chen won the 2014 title for USC, while Emma Talley won the 2015 championship for Alabama.

Past winners of the Four Winds Invitational are Henderson (2015), Nicole Vandermade (2014), Cydney Clanton (2013) and Julia Boland (2012).